UK Riot Vigilantes Attempt To 'Reclaim The Streets'

After consecutive nights of rioting in London, large groups of vigilantes were seen patrolling the London boroughs of Enfield, Eltham and Southall on Tuesday night.

Though such groups have been condemned by the police as counter-productive, it seems that these residents felt the police had already failed the test of protecting them from looters, vandals and rioters. Despite a huge increase in the numbers of police on the streets last night, they had decided to take matters into their own hands.

As many as 200 men were seen roaming the streets in Enfield and Eltham. Members of the English Defence League, the far right group, were said to be heavily involved. The English Defence League claims around half of the Enfield vigilantes were its members. Stephen Lennon, leader of the group, said: 'We're going to stop the riots - police obviously can't handle it.' Many of the other men were said to be Millwall fans. The football club plays in nearby Lewisham, which was the scene of violent disorder earlier this week.

'It is testament to today's snooty view of white working-class communities that many assume that any gathering of a few hundred white blokes must be a racist pogrom-in-the-making. Used to consensual rather than conflictual policing, even large numbers of officers on the streets have proved ineffectual when it comes to preventing or offsetting nihilistic behaviour'.

One of the vigilante patrollers, Nick Davison, summed up the mood of many when he told Sky News:

'We've had enough of the police just standing there, basically scratching their arses while people are looting and ruining the whole area. Everybody here pays tax and we've all had enough of it. We're sickened by the police doing absolutely nothing.'